I bet you didnt know that

ohnonotgmail

Ipso wrote: »

Any relation to Lizzie?

5th or 6th cousins as near as i can make out. they have a common ancestor.

bonzodog2

This pic shows the common ancestor at the top, shows Simeon and down as far as Edward VII on Liz's side
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha#/media/File:Saxe_Coburg_Dynasty_Family_Tree.PNG

Ipso

Is it just me or is that "tree" a bit pretzel shaped?

ohnonotgmail

bonzodog2 wrote: »

This pic shows the common ancestor at the top, shows Simeon and down as far as Edward VII on Liz's side
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha#/media/File:Saxe_Coburg_Dynasty_Family_Tree.PNG

yeah that is what i based my guess on.

Greybottle

lmimmfn wrote: »

Happy Europe Day!

Happy Victory Day! If you're a Russian or from about 15 other countries.

VE Day is May 8th. Its celebrated on May 9th in the former USSR for two reasons..
1. The armistice was signed near midnight in the US controlled section of Berlin, by the time they had gotten over to the Russians it was already past midnight and May 9th
2. It was May 9th in Moscow anyway, and that's what they go on.

It was first celebrated as we know it today in 1965 to commemorate martyrs and veterans and was such as success that they kept it up.

Some countries have dropped it others have taken it up or changed dates over the years, mostly due to politics.

A first surrender document was signed in Reims, France on May 7th but for various reasons Stalin deemed it unacceptable, so they signed a new one in Berlin on May 8th.

dxhound2005

It has been in the news recently in Britain. Their rail system has about 55 million different fares.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/55-million-different-types-train-12497372

Three decades ago it was assumed customers bought tickets by visiting ticket offices and each of the 2,500 stations in Britain must still sell tickets to every other station in the country.

Further layers of complexity have been added through individual franchise agreements, with little taken away.

That means around 55 million different fares exist, including long-standing anomalies such as charging a peak-time fare when half a trip is on an off-peak service, and split ticketing, where it can be cheaper to buy several tickets for a single journey.

VandC

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Bill Bryson has a piece on how the whole world is built on chance.

The percentage chance that stuff happens is why stuff happens.

It's why you have a selection.
It's why you can see a bit of a reflection in a window whilst also looking out the window. Cos some of the light just happens to bounce back in.

There's nothing controlling these things only chance themselves.

I agree with the earlier poster that time doesn't exist. The scientific world doesn't agree with me at the moment, but I think it will

Plenty of physicists say time is an illusion. Personally I don’t think it’s an explanation that describes the world all that accurately.

Maybe I don't need to understand time. Maybe the world isn't ready for my thoughts, I'm just ahead of the game if only

Thanks everyone for the explanations, not sure if I would feel confident even trying to explain time to anyone but I do think about it differently

Realt Dearg Sec

Ipso wrote: »

Any relation to Lizzie?

Sure they're all as inbred as a blue-skinned Kentuckian. Dunno if I'd be parading my family name around like this guy does if I was related to Leopold II. It's nothing to be proud of.

stimpson

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Plenty of physicists say time is an illusion.

Douglas Adams wrote:

Lunchtime doubly so.

.

mzungu

Astronaut Harrison Schmitt was allergic to moon dust. He was on the 1972 Apollo 17 mission and after finishing a survey of the Valley of Taurus-Littrow (near the Moon’s Sea of Serenity) he returned to the landing module with his spacesuit caked in moon dust. After brushing it off his throat itched, sinuses were clogged and eyes were red. Turns out he was indeed allergic to it.

In somewhat related news, I believe the jury is still out on whether moon dust is toxic or not. There has not been enough study done in that area to say for sure.

Capt'n Midnight

mzungu wrote: »

In somewhat related news, I believe the jury is still out on whether moon dust is toxic or not. There has not been enough study done in that area to say for sure.

Unlike sand that's rounded by movement in water moon dust is very sharp.

The Germans had awful problems with dust destroying engines of tanks and trucks when invading Russia.

Wibbs

mzungu wrote: »

Astronaut Harrison Schmitt was allergic to moon dust.

I met him, many moons ago(pun intended). Very nice guy. And the only Apollo guy I know of who regularly lifted his visor - better to discern colours of geological formations on the moon - and get his pic taken.



The other pics of the Apollo guys are in a way obscure, they could be everyman, faceless human shaped spacesuit avatars for the rest of us. But he gave us a face on the Moon. The human element. IIRC he got a bit of static for it at the time, as the guys on the ground were concerned for his sight in those conditions. As it happens the Apollo guys did have statistically higher incidences of cataracts compared to average.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

On the subject of playing cards, when I lived in Hungary my students introduced me to their cards, which are different to regular cards (which they call francia ka'rtya, French cards).

The Hungarian deck has 32 cards, in four suits, acorns, hearts, leaves, and bells. These are apparently derived from a German style deck of cards from the middle ages. They are numbered VII-X with under and upper knaves (incidentally my grandparents always called the Jack the knave in regular cards), Kings and aces. The pictures on the cards depict the story of William Tell.

They were invented in the 1830s, and the guy who made them used the William Tell story for the cards (odd to have a Swiss story in a fiercely patriotic country like Hungary) because it depicted a peasant revolt against a tyrannical monarchy in an era of huge social upheaval in Hungary against the Hapsburg regime.

Anyway I found that stuff by looking it up. What I remember with my students was that to get them to speak English I had them teach me how to play some of their card games, including a version of Last Card called Makao. And just like Last Card at home you have to say when you have your last card, or else you are forced to pick up two more. And, just like Last Card at home, people invent new rules for various cards all the time, often as a way to cheat. And that's how my students emptied my pockets as they taught me an unfamiliar game with a deck of cards I'd never seen before.

Traditionally, cards in the Spanish speaking world are different too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_playing_cards

I bought them for a game of poker when I first moved here and realised my mistake when I opened them. 4 years on, I still haven't learned to play with them.

Cookie_Monster

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

BTW
The worlds largest Ship is a natural gas processing plant

Technically that's not a ship as it cannot travel under it's own power. Its an offshore facility.

py2006

Not sure where I read this, it may have actually been here!

If Alexander Graham Bell had is way we would be answering our phones with "Ahoy". Thomas Edison is the reason we use what was the expression of surprise "hello".

sbsquarepants

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

5th or 6th cousins as near as i can make out. they have a common ancestor.

So do we:D

valoren

py2006 wrote: »

Not sure where I read this, it may have actually been here!

If Alexander Graham Bell had is way we would be answering our phones with "Ahoy". Thomas Edison is the reason we use what was the expression of surprise "hello".

Mr Burns in The Simpsons uses 'Ahoy-hoy' when answering the phone. It's an allusion to Bell's initial suggestion, which was dervied from the Dutch 'hoi' meaning 'hi' essentially. It was also used to show that Burns is really old, pre-dating the advent of 'Hello'.

Greybottle

py2006 wrote: »

Not sure where I read this, it may have actually been here!

If Alexander Graham Bell had is way we would be answering our phones with "Ahoy". Thomas Edison is the reason we use what was the expression of surprise "hello".

Italians say "Pronto" meaning "Ready".
Older Germans might say "Jawohl" meaning "Absolutely", or a very formal way of emphasising "Yes", but of of course we know it well as its used as "Yes Sir" in the armed forces.

Both come from the days of having an operator. You asked for a connection, or you received one, and the operator would both ask you if you were ready once they had connected you. So the Italians said Ready and the Germans said "Yes, I am".

Duckworth_Luas

py2006 wrote: »

Not sure where I read this, it may have actually been here!

If Alexander Graham Bell had is way we would be answering our phones with "Ahoy". Thomas Edison is the reason we use what was the expression of surprise "hello".

QI

pleas advice

Qi is the most commonly played word in tournament scrabble, it's a different spelling of 'chi' meaning 'life force'

It's the 65,014th most used word in English, outside of scrabble

Realt Dearg Sec

Greybottle wrote: »

Italians say "Pronto" meaning "Ready".
Older Germans might say "Jawohl" meaning "Absolutely", or a very formal way of emphasising "Yes", but of of course we know it well as its used as "Yes Sir" in the armed forces.

Both come from the days of having an operator. You asked for a connection, or you received one, and the operator would both ask you if you were ready once they had connected you. So the Italians said Ready and the Germans said "Yes, I am".

Not phone related but anyway...

In Hungary when you meet someone in a formal setting you say "Jo' napot ki'va'nok" meaning "Good day" (the phrase changes depending on time of day) and the more informal thing to say is "szia" (see-ya). This is used for both hello and goodbye.

But the really informal thing to say in greeting is "Hallo", obviously derived from English. What took a lot of getting used to was that, like szia, they use it for hello and goodbye. Hence, after being served at a shop, you will often hear the person say "Hallo" as you walk out the door. I always thought they were getting my attention because I'd forgotten something.

New Home

Just like Aloha or Ciao.

wexie

New Home wrote: »

Just like Aloha or Ciao.

Or the previously mentioned Dutch 'hoi'

(Although using it for bye seems to very much be a regional and or generation thing)

New Home

wexie wrote: »

Or the previously mentioned Dutch 'hoi'

(Although using it for bye seems to very much be a regional and or generation thing)

It's as if they said "Generic greeting!", "Oh, and a generic greeting to you too!"

mzungu

In 1965, a Senate subcommittee predicted that by 2000, Americans would only be working 20 hours a week with seven weeks vacation.

Capt'n Midnight

When Elvis Presley died in 1977 there were about 170 people impersonating him. By 2000 there were about 85,000 Elvis impersonators.

At this rate of growth by 2043 the entire world population will be Elvis impersonators.

Capt'n Midnight

166^3 + 500^3 + 333^3 = 166500333

New Home

^^^
That's not how you spell BOOBIES on a calculator, Capt'n.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

11x11=121
111x111=12321

All the way to

111111111x111111111=12345678987654321.

Fourier

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

166^3 + 500^3 + 333^3 = 166500333

A special case of:

Let x be any power of 10 (beyond the 0th) and pick;

x/2
x/6 -2/3
x/3 - 1/3

In your case:

x = 1000

x/2 = 500
x/6 - 2/3 = 166
x/3 - 13 = 333

And you'll have that trick with the digits.

x = 10000

x/2 = 5000
x/6 - 2/3 = 1666
x/3 - 13 = 3333

(5000)^3 + (1666)^3 + (3333)^3 = 166650003333